Xerxeskingofking
SOC-13
Got the Mgt Space stations book for a xmas present to me, and, looking thought it, I see some interesting stuff and some stuff I personally don't like.
Anyway, looking at the station construction rules, I seem to see a bit of a problem, or rather two different parts of the rules saying two different things that are rather hard to reconcile.
On page 3, theirs a table that says how big a station can be built at a given TL. A TL 9 society, can, for example, built a station of up to 100,000 Dtons (which seems reasonable. That's about the size of a rather large skyscraper. Big, but not impossibly so for a "near future" tech level that TL9 is supposed to be)
Now, so far, so good. However, on page 5, theirs rules for the computer system, which place TL limits on the computer which enforce much smaller station sizes. Specifically, A TL9 society can only create a computer that can run a station of only 5,000 Dtons. to build a station type computer that can control a 100,000 Dton station, you need to be TL13, apparently.
Eh? I know we can we can built water craft vastly bigger than 5,000 dtons* right now. I'll accept that building a spaceship is much harder, but still, one of those two values seems to be rather far off the mark.
When you compare what a society can build using HG rules to the station rules, it appears that the computer TLs are way out of wack compared to their ship counterparts. A TL 9 society can build a jump capable ship of 5,000 tons, and a TL 10 society can build a 10,000 ton ship, but only a 5,000 ton station, unless it sticks a capital ship core in the station. A TL 11 society can build a 50,000 Dton ship, but a TL11 station computer is only good for 10,000 ton stations.
Has their been any official word on this? I can't be the first person to point out this disconnect.
*I tried to work out the dtonnage of the Seawise Giant, but couldn't get a good answer for its total height. but its somewhere upwards of 60,000 Dtons.
Anyway, looking at the station construction rules, I seem to see a bit of a problem, or rather two different parts of the rules saying two different things that are rather hard to reconcile.
On page 3, theirs a table that says how big a station can be built at a given TL. A TL 9 society, can, for example, built a station of up to 100,000 Dtons (which seems reasonable. That's about the size of a rather large skyscraper. Big, but not impossibly so for a "near future" tech level that TL9 is supposed to be)
Now, so far, so good. However, on page 5, theirs rules for the computer system, which place TL limits on the computer which enforce much smaller station sizes. Specifically, A TL9 society can only create a computer that can run a station of only 5,000 Dtons. to build a station type computer that can control a 100,000 Dton station, you need to be TL13, apparently.
Eh? I know we can we can built water craft vastly bigger than 5,000 dtons* right now. I'll accept that building a spaceship is much harder, but still, one of those two values seems to be rather far off the mark.
When you compare what a society can build using HG rules to the station rules, it appears that the computer TLs are way out of wack compared to their ship counterparts. A TL 9 society can build a jump capable ship of 5,000 tons, and a TL 10 society can build a 10,000 ton ship, but only a 5,000 ton station, unless it sticks a capital ship core in the station. A TL 11 society can build a 50,000 Dton ship, but a TL11 station computer is only good for 10,000 ton stations.
Has their been any official word on this? I can't be the first person to point out this disconnect.
*I tried to work out the dtonnage of the Seawise Giant, but couldn't get a good answer for its total height. but its somewhere upwards of 60,000 Dtons.